Fraudsters on the prowl to trap unsuspecting people through phones

Phone scams is the latest method dreamt up by fraudsters to swindling unsuspecting people. Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) represents banks, building societies and card companies and it has launched a national campaign to educate the people and warn them about the telltale signs of a phone scam.
It seems the extent of this crime identified as phone scam can be gauged from the fact that amount of money lost has tripled to £23.9m in the last year. The survey was carried out to assess the extent of the rot and it was revealed that 58% of people had received suspect calls about their banking details – this is up 17% on last year.
As a part of the campaign, customers are advised never to communicate their PIN over the phone to any person.
This falls under the category of cold calling scams – in this, the fraudsters deceive victims into believing that they are talking to a police officer, bank staff, or a trusted representative of an organization. This is also known as fishing.
In the course of the conversation that may sound to be authentic, they will try to get the victims to divulge passwords, transfer funds or even hand over cash to a courier. Whenever such phone calls come asking for personal or financial information, or to hand over the card or cash to someone, one should be cautious. The bank or the police will never tell want customers to take such actions, hence, such talks can only have criminal intent.